Worst kind of history lesson

Russell Pearce rears his bigotted head again by introducing a new bill to attack schools who teach alternate versions of American History.

Republican state Representative Russell Pearce – who claims to be a limited-government conservative but uses his legislative bully pulpit to dictate how everybody else should live and think – is at it again.

His latest brain lapse is a bill he introduced in the House in April that would have targeted schools that use taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate students in what he characterized as “anti-American” and “anti-Western.” 

The ethnic press across the country (like Asian Week, “the voice of Asian Americans”) seized upon the story as yet another example of Arizona-style bigotry against other cultures.

The bill – which other legislators in the House mercifully drowned – painted a bull’s eye directly on Augustine Romero, the senior academic director for ethnic studies and co-director of the Raza studies department for the Tucson Unified School District.

Pearce reacted after Arizona Republic ultra-conservative columnist Doug McEachern branded Romero as teaching revolution, and proudly displaying an image of Fidel Castro in his office.

When he introduced the bill, Pearce stated publicly that the Tucson curriculum called for “the destruction of this country.”

Latino Perspectives published an op-ed rebuttal in April that pointed out McEachern’s numerous mistakes of facts, including that the bearded man image was innovative educator Paulo Freire, not Castro.  (For more, read our March 2008 interview with Mr. Romero)

Even fellow legislators are getting fed up with Pearce’s crusade against anyone who looks or thinks differently from him – meaning people of color.
“The guy’s a total Nazi,” says Representative Robert Meza, a Democrat. “People are just going to have to realize that. I studied the Nazis rise to power and Pearce is taking us right down that dark path. He’s out of control, so I’m going to say what I believe.